Hollie Bone

The owner of Alfie, a dog, who went missing from Rudding Park in Harrogate almost a month ago has said she cannot give up hope as she announced a £1,000 reward for his return.

The eight-year-old Schnauzer went missing on March 8 while he was being walked by a friend of his owner, Vicky Short.

But a week since his last confirmed sighting, Vicky is growing desperate and has offered £1,000 of her own money to anyone who can bring him home safely.

She said: "I have good days and bad days and so does my sister who I share him with.

"We haven't had a sighting of him for a week so it's very difficult to tell people where to look and to think where we should look.

"You don't give up until you know one way or the other. Yes I'll have to step down a bit because I don't know what I'm running at the moment. It's been non-stop but my hope is still somebody somewhere will say they've seen him.

"There's no amount of money that can cover what Alfie means to us, he's our family, but if it's an incentive to somebody then obviously it does help."

Vicky lives with Alfie in Pool in Wharfedale but has been visiting Harrogate every day to search, with the help of nearly 1,700 people in a Facebook group dedicated to finding him.

Alfie, who suffers with epilepsy and needs to take regular medication, was last seen by the bypass in Kirkby Overblow.

Vicky said: "We are having a bit of a walkabout to check hedgerows and dips by the main road in Kirby Overblow, to just make sure nothing untoward has happened to him.

"We are just relying on him showing himself so it's not easy.

"We are now spreading to word further afield and closer to home in Pool In Wharfedale. I do have to hope that we will see him again, it is very difficult."

In the last few weeks Vicky and members of the Facebook group have been doing every thing they can to locate the missing pup and even helped to raise enough money for a professional team to search with a drone.